Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol | |
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Capitolio Provincial sang Negros Occidental | |
General information | |
Type | Neoclassical |
Architectural style | Beaux Art |
Address | Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol Complex |
Town or city | Bacolod, Negros Occidental |
Country | Philippines |
Coordinates | 10°40′36″N122°57′03″E / 10.676760°N 122.950880°E |
Current tenants | Eugenio Jose Lacson Governor of Negros Occidental |
Construction started | 1927 |
Completed | October 23, 1933 |
Inaugurated | January 11, 1935 |
Renovated | 2001–2004 |
Owner | Provincial Government of Negros Occidental |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Juan M. Arellano |
Architecture firm | Bureau of Public Works |
The Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol is the seat of the provincial government of Negros Occidental located at Gatuslao St., Bacolod, Philippines. Within its complex is the Capitol Park and Lagoon.
Before its present location, the provincial government of Negros Occidental was in the house donated by Jose Ruiz de Luzuriaga, who was part of the Philippine Commission established by the Americans in 1901, which was composed of three members.
In 1926, then Governor Jose Locsin decided to erect a provincial capitol building that reflected the province's status as the wealthiest at that time due to the boost in the sugar industry. The Provincial Board looked onto his request and set aside a budget of Php 255,000. On June 2, 1927, the Bureau of Public Works, which had the mandate to approve all the construction of public infrastructures in the country, approved the proposal of the province and authorized the construction of the capitol. [1]
The site that was identified to be the best location for the capitol was owned by the Gonzaga family. Part of the area was a swamp and the grass was used to feed the horses pulling the calesas, which was the main mode of transportation in the towns and cities in the province.
The Gonzaga heirs refused to sell their land and the province filed for expropriation against the family. The heirs, namely, Jose Gonzaga Torres, the Gonzaga children Gertrudes, Adela, Aurelia, Mamerta, Juan, Francisco and Vilardo, represented by lawyer and Bacolod Capitan Municipal Manuel Fernandez Yanson, did not adhere to the P1,200 per hectare expropriation price. As the province was not bent on increasing the price, the case was left to the hands of the court to decide. Eventually, the heirs gave in and the immediate construction of the capitol was directed by the Bureau of Public Works before the end of 1927. [2]
Not satisfied with the pace of the contractor, Manuel Concepcion, in his implementation of the contract, the government confiscated his bond and took over the project. Although the structure was finished on October 23, 1933, the capitol was only formally accepted on January 11, 1935, during the term of Governor Emilio Gaston. In the same year, Negros Occidental's Court of First Instance ordered the government to compensate the other Gonzaga heirs - Magdalena, Carmen and Vicente - who were not included in the expropriation proceedings but whose lands were covered in the construction of the building. The three received payment of P1,552.40 plus 6 percent interest from April 30, 1933. [2]
When World War II broke out, the Japanese Imperial Army occupied the capitol and converted it into its headquarters. [3] Governor Antonio Lizares took office in Talisay, his hometown. For health reasons, he gave up his post and Governor Vicente Gustilo, who based his office in Cadiz, took over until the war ended. However, both governors were in name only as the Japanese were the ones running the province. [2]
In July 2001, rehabilitation of the capitol was initiated by Governor Joseph G. Marañon and it was inaugurated on June 23, 2004. [4] On July 19, 2004, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines under Resolution No. 9, declared it as a National Historical Landmark. [5] [6]
The Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol Building followed Daniel Burnham's Beaux Art style. When William Cameron Forbes was the governor general in the Philippines in 1904, he invited Burnham to the country, who, in turn, recommended as consulting architect to the government William E. Parsons. When he arrived in 1905, Parsons established the architectural office of the Bureau of Public Works which was composed of American and Filipino architects, such as Juan Nakpil, Tomas Mapua, and Juan de Guzman Arellano. [7] Using the neo-classical architectural design of Burnham for the capitol, Juan Arellano executed the project. [4]
The building is built in a shape of the letter E composed of the main entrance, which is the middle part, and of the wings on both sides of the center. The prominent feature of the central section are wide steps that lead to colonnades of about three-story high and with Corinthian capitals on the upper portion. [7]
The works of National Artist for Sculpture Guillermo Tolentino are displayed in the capitol building and the lagoon fronting the building. [7]
Negros Occidental, officially the Province of Negros Occidental (Hiligaynon: Kapuoran sang Nakatungdang Negros (Negros Occidental; Tagalog: Lalawigan ng Kanlurang Negros, is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Bacolod, of which it is geographically situated and grouped under by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but remains politically independent from the provincial government. It occupies the northwestern half of the large island of Negros, and borders Negros Oriental, which comprises the southeastern half. Known as the "Sugarbowl of the Philippines", Negros Occidental produces more than half the nation's sugar output.
Bacolod, officially the City of Bacolod, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the region of Western Visayas, Philippines. It is the capital of the province of Negros Occidental, where it is geographically situated but governed administratively independent.
The Panaad Stadium, also sometimes spelled as Pana-ad, named after the park where the stadium is situated in, is a multi-purpose stadium in Barangay Mansilingan, Bacolod, Philippines.
The Negros Revolution, commemorated and popularly known as the Fifth of November or Negros Day, was a political movement that in 1898 created a government on Negros Island in the Philippines, ending Spanish control of the island and paving the way for a republican government run by the Negrense natives. The newly established Negros Republic lasted for approximately three months. American forces landed on the island unopposed on February 2, 1899, ending the island's independence. Negros was then annexed to the Philippine Islands on 20 April 1901.
Ponciano Elofre, later called Dios Buhawi, was a cabeza (head) of a barangay in Zamboanguita in Negros Oriental, Philippines, and the leader of a politico-religious revolt on Negros in the late 19th century against the Spaniards.
Dionisio Magbuelas, Dionisio Seguela or Dionisio Papa y Barlucia, more widely known as Papa Isio, was the leader of a group of babaylanes who were, as conjectured by Modesto P. Sa-onoy, recruited from the remnants of the followers of Dios Buhawi upon the dissolution of his group under the poor leadership of Camartin de la Cruz during the years prior to the onset of the Philippine Revolution.
Negros Occidental High School is a public secondary educational institution and oldest public secondary school in the province located in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, in the Philippines that was founded since 1902. The school currently offers various curriculum: Special Program in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for the Special Science Class, Basic Education Curriculum for the Regular Class, Special Program for the Arts, Special Program in Journalism, Special Class in Culture and Sports and the Basic Education Curriculum for the Night Class. The Negros Occidental High School had an Extension campus in Murcia, Negros Occidental and later on changed its name to Murcia National High School
The San Diego Pro-cathedral, formerly known as the San Diego Parish Church or the St. Didacus Parish Church before its declaration as a pro-cathedral in 1994, is an early 20th-century church in Silay City, Negros Occidental in the Philippines. It is the only pro-cathedral in the country and is unique in Negros Occidental for being the only church in the province featuring a cupola or dome.
The Capitol Park and Lagoon is a provincial park located in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, in the Philippines. One of the features of the park are matching sculptures depicting a woman standing alongside a water buffalo and that of a man pulling another water buffalo. These sculptures are located at the northern and southern ends of the lagoon. These figures were executed by Italian sculpture Francesco Riccardo Monti who also did the sculptures of the Metropolitan Manila Theater and the University of the Philippines - Visayas Iloilo campus. Guillermo Tolentino also contributed as a sculptor of the figures.
The Bacolod Public Plaza, officially the Plaza del 6 de Noviembre, named after the day of the Spanish surrender of Negros Island to the Negros revolutionaries, is one of the notable landmarks of Bacolod, the capital of Negros Occidental, Philippines. It is located in the heart of the downtown area, near the old city hall and across from the San Sebastian Cathedral. The plaza is a trapezoidal park with a belt of trees around the periphery and a gazebo at the center. Scattered within the trees are four circular fountains.
The Fountain of Justice is a historic landmark in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines. It marks the location where the house of Jose Ruiz de Luzurriaga used to stand. It was in this house that the surrender of Bacolod by Spanish authorities to the Filipino forces of General Aniceto Lacson took place on November 6, 1898, during the Negros Revolution. Luzurriaga acted as mediator between the two belligerents. Colonel Isidro de Castro, Spanish governor of Negros, signed the surrender document on behalf of the Spanish forces. The landmark now lies in front of the old Bacolod City Hall.
Antonio Ledesma Jayme was a Filipino lawyer, revolutionary hero, Governor of Negros Occidental, and assemblyman, as well as a lawmaker and a revolutionary nation's founding father and a signatory to a nation-state's constitution.
The Bacolod Metropolitan Area, simply known as Metro Bacolod, is the 8th-most populous and the 6th-most densely populated metropolitan area out of the 12 metropolitan areas in the Philippines. This metropolitan area as defined by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has an estimated population of 1,435,593 inhabitants as of the 2020 official census by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The San Sebastian Cathedral is a late 19th-century church in Bacolod, Negros Occidental in the Philippines. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bacolod.
Negros is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of 13,309 km2 (5,139 sq mi). Negros is one of the many islands of the Visayas, in the central part of the country. The predominant inhabitants of the island region are mainly called Negrenses. As of 2020 census, the total population of Negros is 4,656,945 people.
Mambukal Resort, officially the Township of Mambukal or simply known as Mambukal, is a resort township located within the boundaries of the municipality of Murcia, Negros Occidental. As a township, it is directly governed by the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental, which also manages Mambukal Mountain Resort in the 6-hectare townsite near Brgy. Minoyan. The resort is owned and managed by the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental under its Economic Enterprise Development Department.
Capitol Central, previously called the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol Complex, is a government complex and mixed-use estate centered around the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol, currently co-managed with Ayala Land. Certain portions are leased or sold to Ayala Land, as part of their industrial estate in Bacolod, Philippines.
The Negros Island Region, also abbreviated and officially designated as NIR, was a short-lived administrative region in the Philippines which comprised the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, both of which cover the island of Negros, currently proposed for re-establishment. It existed from May 29, 2015, to August 9, 2017. Local officials and the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution have proposed to reinstate Negros as a region or state of a Philippine federation.
The Panaad Park and Sports Complex(Tagalog: [ˈpɐnaʔad], sometimes spelled Pana-ad), also known as the Panaad Park and Stadium or the Panaad Sports and Recreational Park, is a sports and recreational park in Bacolod, Negros Occidental, Philippines owned by the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental. It also hosts a sports complex with a stadium. The park is known as the main venue of the Panaad Festival since its establishment in the late 1990s.
José Ruiz de Luzuriaga was a Filipino judge, sugar planter, revolutionary and politician. Luzuriaga was a member of the Philippine Commission from 1901 to 1913.